ASX 200 has just 11 female CEOs, and 41 have no executive women leaders

There are just 11 female CEOs on the ASX 200, and 41 of the nation's largest companies don't have a woman on their executive leadership.

That is the latest finding of the Chief Executive Women (CEW) ASX 200 Senior Executive Census 2017, which confirms that men still hold the majority (79 per cent) of roles in ASX 200 executive leadership.

While the Australian Institute of Company Directors conducts a quarterly report on women's representation on public company boards – there are still 13 companies on the ASX 200 with no female directors – the CEW report measures the number of executive women. It also highlights the proportion of women in "line" roles and "functional" roles.

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CEW president Kathryn Fagg says more companies needed to set targets and provide mentors for women.Credit:Wayne Taylor

Based on information collected in August 2017 from ASX 200 company websites, CEW's analysis found 126 companies in the ASX 200 have no women in line roles in their executive leadership. Only 16 ASX 200 companies have executive leadership teams that are 40 per cent or more women.

There's been better progress at the board level. Women now make up 25.4 per cent of ASX 200 directorships, according to the AICD, but this stops short of the 30 per cent by 2018 target the organisation was hoping for.

CEW president Kathryn Fagg said the CEW census also showed some progress, although off a low base.

In 2008 (when gender-based workplace data started being collated by the AICD) 46 per cent of companies in the ASX 200 had no women in their executive leadership teams. It's now dropped to 20 per cent.

Sydney Airport's CEO Kerrie Mather is just one of 11 female chiefs in the ASX 200 but she will soon be retiring.Credit:Anthony Johnson

And women now hold 21 per cent (381 out of 1804) of executive leadership positions in ASX 200, compared with 11 per cent (182 out of 1700) in 2008.

She said it was encouraging to see Australian mining giant BHP Billiton set an aspirational goal for half of its traditionally male-dominated workforce to be women by 2025. The company did so, she said, when it realised that teams with greater diversity had outperformed those without.

BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie has set a target of having a 50/50 evenly male/female workforce. Credit:Wayne Taylor

While BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie has called the target "challenging", he's said that senior managers now have performance targets to lift female staff numbers by at least 3 per cent a year.

Ms Fagg said more companies needed to set targets and provide mentors for women.

While women would more-often-than-not leave the workforce to have and raise children, this did not mean that they should be disregarded for promotions, she said. Some companies like Pepsi Co have promoted women while they are on maternity leave. "At a minimum companies need to make sure they stay in contact with women [while they are on leave]," Ms Fagg said.

CEW member and Spencer Stuart's head of Asia-Pacific financial services practice Kerri Burgess said management needed to pay more attention to line roles, because this created the pipeline of women to draw from for future roles.

Top companies with more than 40 per cent women in the executive leadership (not a measure of female directors, only executives)